In 1930, two Australian miners were searching for gold in a part of New Guinea where it was believed that hardly any humans had ever set foot. The land was considered uninhabited and uninhabitable. Camped on a mountain ridge, at dusk, the incoming darkness illuminated thousands of points of light that obviously originated from campfires in the immense valley below. It was the first glimpse of a civilization that was unknown to the modern world; a civilization that had developed in isolation for millennia; a civilization of 50,000 people, living in Stone Age circumstances, who were unaware that any other humans walked the earth.
In a critically acclaimed book, the famous geographer, Jared Diamond, briefly discussed the startling discovery and the astonishment experienced on both sides as an expedition from the outside world eventually entered the valley in 1938. It was a collision of two worlds; a collision whose enormity was not only enhanced by extreme technological differences, but also by major disparities concerning assumptions on the nature of the world. There was not a single individual, of the Grand Valley of New Guinea, who was at least six or seven years old in 1938, who did not remember exactly where he or she was at that surreal time, when the walls of their reality came tumbling down.
Last summer, I stood upon Mars Hill, in Athens, Greece, where the Apostle Paul gave one of his more famous speeches. In that speech he said, "And (the Lord) hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17: 26). And as I stood on that hill, I shared that place with good people from many, many different cultures.
Most of God's precious children, both in and out of the church, live in narrow cultural valleys that, in some ways, are just as isolated and impassible as the Grand Valley of New Guinea. Their cultures tell them many things. Most are good, some are bad. Most are right, some are wrong. For example, they may be walled in by what their culture tells them concerning how unattractive they are. What they don't understand is that culture has an impact in determining what is an attractive man or an attractive woman. The same individual might be a good-looking person in one culture and a not-so-good-looking person in another. For example, within certain limits, the perfect weight one should have is culturally determined and varies significantly from culture to culture and is not something that comes from God. God feels that all His daughters are beautiful and all His sons are handsome. He is not influenced by cultural decision making. What is a good-looking person can vary significantly across the cultural space-time continuum. Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves at the wrong point. I know that I definitely was born in the wrong culture and the wrong time period because, when I was a teenager, I used to ask my mother concerning why the girls didn't like me and she used to say, "If a girl likes you, she ignores you." If a girl likes you, she ignores you? You know, I'm not sure that's right. I don't think that's right. Because if that is right, that means that 100% of the girls in my high school must have been crazy about me.
All of us, no matter what culture to which we belong, are often told by that culture how unimpressive we are. All cultures are replete with what is called cultural irrationality where people spend their entire lives chasing after false needs and worried about false problems. The culture of the United States, like all cultures, is filled with cultural irrationality.
For example, I can't see anywhere in this book (the scriptures) that you have to have a lot of stuff. I don't read in here that you have to have fame and recognition. I haven't heard that it says in here that you have to have what your culture says are good looks. I can't find in here that it says you have to have a 4.0 GPA. And there is nothing in here that says that you have to have been the quarterback on the football team or the head cheerleader. I've looked in here and I can't find any of that.
Let me tell you what I did find. I found, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matt 7:12). I found, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matt. 19: 19). I found, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt. 11: 29). And I found, "though the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, my kindness shall not depart from thee neither the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 54:10). That is what I found and those are the things that ought to fill our minds and occupy our thoughts rather than many of the rather superficial things of the world in general.
Our self-concepts are, generally, culture bound. And sometimes we allow what our culture tells us to make us miserable. Sometimes, we pay too much attention to our culture's opinion as to what a real man or a real woman is. Concepts like that can vary immensely from culture to culture. One of the most important things we can do is study other cultures because such study may for the first time allow us to understand our own culture and our own particular irrationalities. And, BYU-Hawaii is uniquely qualified to help you in this regard with the excellent cultural studies program that resides here.
Talking about interesting cross-cultural experiences and how we can learn from them, one time I found myself in a Mayan village in the jungles of Central America. I was one of several faculty members supervising a group of Ricks College students there. That morning, a Mayan villager, an old man of about eighty years, took some of the students on an iguana hunt and a terrible cultural event happened; they didn't catch an iguana. Upon their return, the old man sat down on a log, humiliated, with his head in his hands. I figured out that in this man's culture, a "real man" gets his iguana. Therefore, I determined to accompany the afternoon iguana hunt and do all I could to restore this old gentleman's dignity. I, and several young ladies in the group, decided to go. As the time approached, the Spirit kind of told me not to go, and I should have listened to it, but I guess the Lord fortunately decided to protect me anyway from the dangers that awaited as we walked into that dense jungle.
We finally arrived at this small opening between the trees and this eighty-year old man began to quickly scale a huge tree as if it were nothing at all. He soon disappeared amongst the thick foliage. All of a sudden, I heard him shout, "Iguana! Iguana!" and we all heard the cracking of tree branches that seemed to be getting closer and closer. We were all looking at each other with eyes as big as golf balls when, all of a sudden, an iguana, several feet long, barely missed hitting me on the head as he fell from the top of the tall tree and ended up on the ground at my feet. At this moment, all the girls screamed and disappeared into the jungle. But I, being the Indiana Jones sort of guy I am, did not flee the scene, I stood my ground, paralyzed with fear. The man was shouting in Spanish from the top of the tree saying "Grap it! Grap it!" The creature and I both looked at each other for a few seconds. He had a mouth on him that I was sure could easily dispatch with one of my fingers. He also had these things that looked like spikes coming out of his back. And I decided at that moment that I was perfectly comfortable with being a wimp in that culture. Not being a real man and being a real wimp was fine with me. In fact, I decided that I was going to do the Christian thing and allow the old man the honor of catching it. After a few seconds of the iguana and I staring at each other, he gave me the look of a mother cat trying to get some sleep as she stares at her kittens playing with her tail, and slowly strolled toward a creek and jumped in.
There are a lot of things in our respective cultures that bother us all the time that are about as important as catching an iguana. Might having to make a whole lot of money be one of our personal iguanas? Might having to have a really nice car or a big home be one of our iguanas? Might having to be as successful as our culture says we should be one of our iguanas?
Society is replete with false needs. In our strivings to obtain them, we often sacrifice the true needs; things like spending quality time with our children, being kind to our spouse, our colleagues, and our roommates, being people of honor and integrity, etc. There is a story about an ancient Roman general who really really wanted something that his culture valued very highly, and he could have gotten it, but to do so he would have had to have sacrificed honor; and that, he refused to do.
At a time in the early Roman Empire; a long time even before Jesus walked the earth, the Romans were putting up with a rebellious group of people who inhabited the Italian peninsula among whom were a group called the Falerians. The Falerians had declared their independence from Rome and felt comfortable that the Romans could do nothing about it due to the exceptionally strong wall and other fortifications that encompassed their city. After the Falerians' independence was declared, the Romans sent one of their best generals, a man by the name of Camillus, to put down the rebellion and bring them back under Roman rule.
When Camillus saw the great fortifications, he knew he was in for a long and difficult siege. In fact, all he felt he could do was surround the city and wait until something, hopefully in his favor, might occur. But the siege went on and on with no end in sight.
Since the Romans were camped quite far away from the wall, to be out of range of the Falerian archers, occasionally Falerian citizens would venture a little ways outside of the wall for short periods. Sometimes even the children would go outside the walls to play. In fact, all of the Falerian children happened to be under the tutelage of one schoolmaster. This schoolmaster, occasionally, would lead them a little outside the wall so they could get some exercise. However, little did they know that this schoolmaster, who felt that the Romans would eventually win the war, saw an opportunity to gain the Roman's favor by betraying the Falerian children into their hands. Day after day, the schoolmaster led the children a little farther away from the wall, until the time came when he was able to deliver the children to the Roman camp. He explained to the Romans that they could use the children's lives as barter to force the Falerians to surrender their city.
Shortly after their children had gone outside of the wall, the Falerians realized what had happened. And looking afar off, and seeing their children as captives of the Romans, the Falerians experienced unimaginable agony. The city became a site full of weeping and wailing. Parents were screaming, terrified they would lose their children. Also, the Falerian leaders now knew that the war was lost.
Camillus, the Roman general, upon hearing of this betrayal, and seeing the Falerian children and their schoolmaster in his camp, realized that this act would win the war for him and bring him great glory. But Camillus was one of those rare individuals who put honor and integrity before dubious cultural rewards. According to the Roman historian Plutarch, Camillus said, "War, indeed, is of necessity attended with much injustice and violence! Certain laws, however, all good men observe even in war itself, nor is victory so great an object as to induce us to incur for its sake obligations for base and impious acts. A great general should rely on his own virtue, and not on other men's vices."
At that point Camillus ordered the schoolmaster's hands to be bound behind him. He then had his soldiers cut pieces of branches that the children could use to whip their schoolmaster. Camillus then ordered the children to whip their schoolmaster all the way back to the city. Well, you can imagine, the shock and the relief the parents felt when they witnessed their children running happily and laughing as they whipped the schoolmaster back to the city.
Well, after that incident occurred, the Falerians thought that maybe the Romans weren't so bad after all. They opened up peace negotiations with Camillus and the whole affair was soon settled. So, war was avoided and many people ended up being the beneficiaries of Camillus' willingness to put honor and integrity before his culture's strong emphasis on conquest, fame, glory, and victory.
Camillus would truly understand the Savior's words when he said, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16: 26) In life we will always be surrounded by false needs. We should never put them before living a life of honor and selflessness.
Another false need we often have is that we worry about others' opinions of us. Sometimes we do things we should not do just because we worry too much about the neuron firings that go on within other people's heads. I am going to now retell a story I first read about in a book called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones that retells ancient stories of inspiration from old Japan. It tells about a man who did not worry about what others thought of him, but rather only worried about doing the right thing at all times.
In old Japan, there was once a man named Hakuin who possessed an excellent reputation for pure, and chaste conduct. One of his neighbors was a beautiful girl, who through unwise behavior, found herself unmarried and pregnant. Her parents were furious and demanded to know the identity of the father. She resisted, however after suffering continual parental pressure, she named Hakuin.
The parents stormed over to his home and angrily accused him of fathering their daughter's illegitimate child. Hakuin's only answer to the accusation was, "Is that so?"
After the child was born, the parents brought it to him and demanded that he take care of it. By now, Hakuin's sterling reputation had been replaced by scorn and disgust within the community. This fact did not bother him at all. He accepted the child and provided for its every need.
A few months later, the beautiful girl could bear it no longer, and told her parents that the real father of the baby was a young man she had been seeing.
The parents immediately went to Hakuin's home and profusely apologized and requested the child back. He consented and while handing the child to them responded, "Is that so?"
Hakuin was truly a man of honor, who lived his life well and didn't let the false need of having a great reputation keep him from doing further acts of humility and righteousness. But as we all know, not all we do is honorable, not all we do is righteous. We are imperfect people, we have all sinned. But the fact that we have sinned does not mean that we cannot rise to levels of greatness.
In fact, there is another story from old Japan about a man who was very imperfect, yet through repentance, he became truly great.
Many years ago, there lived a man by the name of Zenkai. He worked for a government official. He soon fell in love with the official's wife and an affair ensued. One day they were discovered by the official and Zenkai ended up killing the official in self-defense. He fled from the province.
Years later, he felt the pangs of remorse concerning the tragedy to which his behavior had led. He decided to somehow atone for his sins. Nearby there was a dangerous mountain road where many people had lost their lives. Zenkai decided that he would cut a tunnel through the mountain so that the people could avoid the section where most of the deaths occurred. For thirty years, he lived as a beggar and worked on the tunnel. Nearing the completion of the tunnel, Zenkai was discovered by the son of the official he had killed. The son said that he had been searching for many years to avenge his father's death and that the time for Zenkai's demise had arrived. Zenkai said that he would gladly allow himself to be killed if the son would grant him his desire to complete the tunnel. The son consented and even assisted in the digging to hurry things up. Many weeks later, the tunnel was finished and Zenkai offered himself to the son saying that he might now feel free to avenge his father's death. The son replied, "How can I take the life of my master teacher?"
It behooves us to be reminded of what it says in Isaiah 1: 18, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
If attending to the false needs of your culture is making your life miserable, you can recognize that and change. If you are engaged in behaviors that are not blessing your life or the lives of others, how much easier would it be for you to just change?
If you don't put much time or interest into your studies, you can change. If you are involved in drugs, alcohol, or other destructive behaviors, you can change. If you have been arrogant and treat people you consider below you badly, you can change. If you have been a bully, you can change. If you have made your parents lives difficult, you can change. If you have made your roommates lives difficult, you can change.
You know, talking about roommates and things like that, we so often pass through life without having the least inkling of how our actions may be negatively affecting others. Sometimes we need to think about how something will make people feel before we act. This reminds me of an event that happened in my life years ago. In my ward, back when I was a teenager and a relatively new convert, they had what was called a missionary board. This missionary board had a map of the world in the middle and photos of the missionaries from the ward on the sides. There were strings of yarn going from the photos of the missionaries to the places where they were serving. At the very bottom of the missionary board there was a space entitled Future Missionaries. My picture was there along with all the other members of the Priests Quorum. There was one problem however. The girls in the ward used to steal the Priests' pictures. Well, let me clarify that; almost all the Priests' pictures. I and this other guy, we never got our pictures stolen. Every Sunday, the first thing I and my friend did was go immediately to the missionary board, hoping and praying our pictures would be no longer there, but alas, everyday, our smiling faces were still there, smiling back at us under the title of Future Missionaries.
What were those girls thinking? What were they thinking? The least they could have done is stolen my picture too. I don't care what they would have done with it after they stole it. They could have drawn a big moustache on me and given me long sideburns, they could have thrown darts at it, I really don't care, but they should have at least stolen my picture. You know, this makes me think about life. Life affords us many opportunities to symbolically steal people's pictures. Most go unused. There are many of your brothers and sisters out there awaiting your attention.
Those who have been bullied throughout their lives, by loving and respecting them, you can steal their picture. Those who may be unintentionally irritating, by being patient with them, you can steal their picture. Those who have never been popular and have no confidence in themselves, by just saying hi to them, and including them in your conversations with others, you can steal their picture.
Life is too precious to allow opportunities to do good to just pass us by and be blown to the wind. We live in a world fraught with war, hunger, disease, oppression, and poverty. We live in a world where many are hungry; not just hungry for food, but hungry for respect, hungry for love, hungry for concern. Their particular cultures are saying they don't deserve respect or love. They are telling them they are not pretty, they're not impressive, they're not talented. But God is not saying that. Shakespeare said, "But, O! How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!" We need to see things through the eyes of love rather than the eyes of our often judgmental cultures. In the midst of the pain and anguish in this world we need to seize the day and take on the immense challenge that lies before us. And may we never forget that as we have done it unto one of the least of these we have done it unto Him (Matt. 25:40). And this is my prayer in Jesus' name, amen.